Lisa Millar talks Gympie life in new book Daring to Fly

In an exclusive interview, award-winning ABC journalist Lisa Millar talks growing up in the Gympie region, and the start of her brilliant career in media at The Gympie Times.

Lisa Millar is an award-winning senior journalist at the ABC, who has covered many earth-shattering stories in her illustrious career - but it all started in Gympie.

In a tell-all book to be released in September, Ms Millar details her life and career, starting from her childhood in the Gympie region.

Ms Millar is expected to make a special appearance at the Gympie Times Ladies Race Day, Covid lockdown permitting, on September 18, 2021.

Click here to purchase tickets for the luncheon she will be a special guest at.

Lisa Millar was born and grew up in the rural Queensland town of Kilkivan, before she moved to Gympie at the age of 10. Photo: Lisa Millar.

Ms Millar was born in Kilkivan, where she lived until the age of 10, before moving to Gympie with her family.

She described growing up in country Queensland as an “idyllic way to grow up”, with one of her favourite memories involving going to the library each week.

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“My experiences growing up in the country are of being just quite a naive but happy, country kid,” she said.

After leaving Kilkivan, she began school at One Mile State School, which she described as overwhelming compared to the small-town she was used to.

While attending university, Ms Millar began working as a cadet journalist at the Gympie Times in 1988, an experience she described as “the best way to start”.

“I’d come home from university to do work experience...and the cadet resigned when I was there, so I basically was the nearest and easiest option,” she said.

“Talk about a lucky fluke!”

She said the first story she wrote was about a head lice outbreak in local schools.

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“I’ve still got a copy of it; I was so excited,” she said.

She said she also wrote a magazine pull-out called Cooloola Coast, and described memories of travelling around the region.

“It was terrific - I’d go to Tin Can Bay and down to Noosa and take the photos and interview people,” she said.

“This was a region I grew up in, but it just allowed me to roam it in a completely different way.”

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After working at The Gympie Times for two years, Ms Millar said she got a job working for Brisbane afternoon tabloid The Sun, before it closed down in 1991, and she lost her job.

She said she did not let this deter her, and she promptly got a job working at WIN TV in Townsville the following year.

In April 1993, she got a job at the ABC in Townsville, before becoming a foreign correspondent for the ABC in 2001.

Lisa Millar in London after becoming a foreign correspondent for the ABC. Photo: Lisa Millar

Ms Millar now lives in Melbourne, but said she still considers herself a country girl at heart.

A book authored by Ms Millar, titled Daring to Fly and recounting her life and career starting from a country girl in Kilkivan, will be released on September 1.